Marina St Vincent’s Stephen Marks ordered to reimburse boaties $207,000 for auditor’s fees in long-running court battle

Boaties who sued a marina company over misappropriation of their lease fees have scored a victory against its embattled director.

Stephen Marks (red top) and associates removing a boat from the Marina St Vincent on Monday, March 30 after the State Government terminated their lease.

He was found not to be a truthful witness, who delayed court proceedings and positioned his company so it avoided a potential damages bill for misappropriating marina funds.

Now former Marina St Vincent boss Stephen Marks, pictured, faces a significant personal cost in defending a long-running class action claim brought by boaties against his company’s management of the government-owned marina.

The District Court has ordered Mr Marks, 56, of Norwood, to personally reimburse $207,000 in court fees to 75 boaties who sued his firm New Wave Aerospace (NWA) over the alleged misuse of their berth fees.

The money is to reimburse fees the boaties paid to a court-appointed forensic accountant who found that Mr Marks’ company, of which he is sole director, had paid $658,166 out of the marina accounts to related entities of which, the court heard, Mr Marks had a direct or indirect interest.

The boaties had sought court costs against Mr Marks personally after he liquidated his company in August, just one business day before Judge Patrick O’Sullivan was to hand down a final judgment in the class action, effectively shutting down any damages claim against the company.

Stephen Marks outside court. Picture: AAP / Russell Millard

The costs order falls well short of the $635,180 the boaties had wanted in their original claim against Mr Marks’ company, which had operated the marina from 2014 until its eviction last November.

In a further blow for the boaties, Judge Patrick O’Sullivan ruled Mr Marks did not have to pay their legal fees,

Judge O’Sullivan ruled in February that NWA had used the aggrieved boaties’ fees to fund related companies and had breached the headlease by failing to maintain the Wirrina Cove marina.

He also found Mr Marks was “not a witness of truth” during a trial last year.

In seeking personal costs against Mr Marks, the boaties’ lawyer Peter Pedler had argued Mr Marks’ conduct had increased litigation costs by delaying hearings and lack of representation.

In defending a personal costs order Mr Marks had argued the applicants’ claim had not been “made out”.

Judge O’Sullivan ruled that the berth owners’ prospects of success in obtaining judgment in excess of $600,000 were “substantial and that they effectively achieved their goals”.

He also found that Mr Marks’ presentation of financial information had “confused and extended” the litigation.